Genetic engineering in bioremediation of petroleum contamination

The incessant release of petroleum (crude oil) contaminants into natural environments and ecosystems and the resulting effect(s) of their unwavering persistence on such environments’ inhabiting communities has provoked the arising global concerns. The nature of xenobiotics and their ecotoxicological impact on the environment are found to be detrimental not only to organisms of the affected ecosystems’ inhabiting communities, but via food chain and energy transfer humans are not excluded – the aftermath of their ingestion could have hemotoxic, carcinogenic, teratogenic, genotoxic, mutagenic effects, etc., as the case may be. As a result of high environmental contamination, almost every specie on planet Earth is continuously confronted with the struggle for survival, hence the need for development of efficient and effective techniques for remediation of contaminated/polluted environments is of paramount importance.